Southern California -- this just in

Giants and Dodgers fans set aside rivalry after attack, drop off donations

April 11, 2011 | 1:19
pm

A slow, but steady stream of drivers made their way to Dodger Stadium on Monday as part of a drive-thru fundraiser for Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was severely beaten in a stadium parking lot on opening day.

Santa Monica resident Victoria Caldwell, 40, a bookkeeper for an entertainment accounting firm, said she saw news of the fund drive on morning television and came down with her miniature pinscher, Minnie.

A Dodger fan since childhood, she said she was shocked by the violence but believed it was important "to stick together and show our commitment" by helping with Stow's healthcare costs. She said she believed the March 31 attack was an isolated incident.

Stow, wearing Giants apparel, was in the stadium parking lot after the game when two young men began taunting him. According to police, one of the men blindsided him with blows to the back and head. Both men repeatedly kicked and punched Stow on the ground before fleeing in a car driven by a woman. Police said it appeared a 10-year-old boy was also in the car.

Stow suffered a fractured skull and damage to his frontal lobe. He remained in critical condition Monday in a medically induced coma at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He is undergoing further testing, but no improvement has been reported since his admission, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Brothers Matt and Noah Glazer bicycled in from their home in Highland Park with a check. Noah, 27, a production assistant, tugging on the brim of his Lakers cap, said he worried that a police crackdown with uncertain standards in the wake of the Stow beating would squelch the normal fun-loving rivalry between the two California National League teams.

"I have a lot of friends in the Bay Area. I go to games in San Francisco and heckling is part of the game," Noah Glazer said. "That doesn't mean I'm going to stab someone in the parking lot."

At the same time he said he hoped that participating in the benefit would help stop the violence from escalating to the point where security would become overwhelming. "Hopefully some goodwill comes of it and some of the fringe element learns regular fans aren't going to tolerate it," he said.

Patrick Odell, 38, of West Los Angeles, a "die-hard Dodgers fan" arrived in his Dodgers' Hawaiian shirt. "Hearing what happened just killed me," the paralegal at a downtown law firm said. "I don't think that's what Dodger fans are about. "

Already, he said his friends were saying there's no way they'd bring their kids to Dodger Stadium, which he said he believed was wrongheaded. He came with a check to show "it wasn't real baseball fans who were responsible. It was people who came apparently for no reason but to savagely attack someone."

Andrea Murphy, 33, a Giants fan, said her heart went out to Stow, his family and fellow Giants fans.

Murphy, an aspiring real estate agent from Modesto now living in Santa Monica, she said she had attended Dodgers games in Giants regalia, most recently a preseason game where she wore a black Giants shirt, with no trepidation. But she worried the Stow beating would make the rivalry turn ugly.

"Let's hopefully never let this happen again," she said. "It's so sad that something like this would happen at a baseball game of all places."

Giants and Dodgers players also planned Monday night to take part in a pregame ceremony when the teams face off again at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The ceremony will honor Stow and "encourage civility in the rivalry," Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said.

The money collected Monday will go to a trust fund established by Stow's mother at the San Francisco Police Credit Union, and will benefit him and his two children.

The drive was scheduled to end at 3 p.m. Checks should be made out to the "Bryan Stow Fund."

Photo: Dino Leasure, with Kodi, chats with paramedics after driving into Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon to drop off a donation, one of many drivers who contributed cash and checks for a relief fund for paramedic Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was severely beaten on opening day. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times